Reflection by the Stream
by Freya4
Summary: Kagome pours her heart out to the one thing she believes will listen to her: a stream. Unknown to her is that she has an audience...a certain silvered haired one...


Reflections by the Stream  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own Inu-Yasha.  
  
AN: Just a small little one shot. I/K pairing. Written while very bored in Spanish class.  
  
Deep in Inu-Yasha's Forest a young women with long raven locks sits by a stream in deep contemplation. Many different emotions flit across her stormy sapphire eyes as a tired sigh escapes her full pink lips.  
'I have seen too much. I have endured too much. How can I keep my sanity intact?' she wonders as a soft breeze blows her midnight tresses around her porcelain face.  
"It has been three years." She says to the stream. "Three years since I fell through the well and began this journey. I have changed so much..." Shifting her weight slightly, she hugs her knees to her chest.  
"I have felt more in the past three years than I had in the first fifteen years of my life and now I am suffering the dire consequences. Love, hate and friendship are ripping my soul to pieces. It hurts so much. I suffer unrequited love and the object of that love looks at me but sees another. For him, I remain here in the past, watching my life in the future crumble to ashes."  
"Ashes. The one word that seems to describe everything these days. My love loves a bone and ash doll that was and still is a greater person than I could ever be. My friends in the future are preparing for college and sweeping me into the ashes with the rest of their high school life. I realize now that I have no future.  
Once Naraku is destroyed and the jewel reclaimed where will I go? My time has become out of the question for I refuse to live out my days at the shrine and have no hope for getting into college. Sango and Miroku deserve to start a life together and Inu-Yasha will have no further use for me. I am utterly alone."  
Tears slip down her pale cheeks and she bows her head in sorrow. Unknown to the sapphire eyed girl however, a certain someone sat in the branches of a nearby tree, taking in all that she had just said. His golden amber eyes hold shock and his triangular ears twitch slightly.  
"Kagome..." he whispers. "I had no idea. Kami, I am sorry." He silently jumps to the ground and walks slowly to the weeping girl. "Kagome, please stop crying, you know I hate it when you cry." He pleads gently. Startled, Kagome twists around quickly.  
"Inu-Yasha? How long have you been here?" she asks quietly, hoping he has just arrived.  
"Long enough to finally understand how much pain you are really in." He sits down beside her. "Kagome, why did you keep all that to yourself? Why did you not come to me to talk about it?"  
"Inu-Yasha, please. You know as well as I do that you would not have listened." She sighs tiredly.  
"I am listening now." He says softly. Kagome looks up and blinks in complete surprise.  
"Are you really ready to hear all of this? Honestly, do you really think you can help to make this all better?"  
"I can try." He replies with a slight shrug of his shoulders.  
"Very well Inu-Yasha. I am tired. Not just physically, but mentally and emotionally. Especially emotionally. I really do not know how much loner I can keep playing this game."  
"What game Kagome?" Inu-Yasha interrupts.  
"THE game, Inu-Yasha. The game between you, Kikyo and me. You will protect me as long as I am able to find the shards and as long as Kikyo is not in the immediate vicinity. Can you imagine how I feel every time you drop everything to rush to her side?"  
Inu-Yasha's ears droop slightly as her words hit home. "You're right Kagome. I DO drop everything to rush off to Kikyo, but I honestly do not mean to hurt you. There is a reason that I do it."  
"I know Inu-Yasha, you love her and I really have no right to question your actions."  
"I do not love Kikyo, at least not anymore. True, I used to, but that was fifty years ago and things were different. We were different. Besides, how could it have really been love if our trust was so easily broken?" he asks sadly. Surprise, happiness, and a small tinge of sorrow creep into Kagome's sapphire eyes.  
"If you do not love her anymore, then why go to her?" She asks slowly, if not carefully.  
"I guess I feel like her death is my fault. Even if we really did not love each other like we thought, she was still the first person to even acknowledge me as a person. I let her down. For that I owe her my life." He sighs. "Besides," he spits out bitterly. "Who else would accept a filthy hanyou?"  
"Inu-Yasha! How can you even think like that? You owe nothing to Kikyo! Can't you see? She was just using you to rid herself of the jewel. And how dare you call yourself filthy? I accept you for you and so does Sango, Miroku and Shippo!"  
Inu-Yasha smile lightly at this. "I know Kagome, I know. It's just really hard to grasp the concept considering my past. Old habits die hard I guess." He shrugs lightly. Kagome stands up to face him.  
"Inu-Yasha, please, do not run off to Kikyo anymore. I know I must sound awfully selfish saying that but I just...I can't..." she breaks off as more tears make their way slowly down her face.  
Inu-Yasha's golden amber eyes display shock, much like her sapphire ones earlier, as he watches the young women in front of him shed more silent tears. Tears for him. Softly he shakes his head. "No Kagome, I am happy to hear you say that." She looks up at him with a slightly arched brow. Inu-Yasha laughs. "It lets me know you truly do care about me."  
"Well of course I care about you! What made you think otherwise?" She asks with mock indignation.  
"Well, I've known that you cared for me, but what gets me is why. How can you care about me after I've called you names and compared you to Kikyo? I've treated you like dirt." Kagome cringes at this slightly. "I've even made you cry." Inu-Yasha looks down at his feet in shame. "If I were you I'd leave and never bother with me again."  
"Inu-Yasha, all that you have said is true, but you are forgetting one simple thing...I am not you. I cannot help but come back to you; you have always been able to draw me to you. I guess that is what happens when you are in love." She smiles sadly. "Even though my feelings will never be returned."  
"Kagome, what do you mean love? How can you love someone like me?" Inu-Yasha questions quietly.  
"I cannot help it. I cannot stop loving you. I have tried, but I am addicted. You are like my drug." She laughs lightly. "Please think nothing of this Inu-Yasha. I do not mean to burden you with my unwanted confession. I know how you fell about Kikyo and..." Her sentence is cut short as Inu-Yasha pulls her into a tight hug. "Inu-Yasha?"  
"I'm sorry Kagome, I'm so sorry. I had no idea, you think I love Kikyo? I've already told you I don't. I just feel as if I owe her and have no real reason to stay. At least, I didn't until now." Kagome inhales sharply.  
"What are you saying Inu-Yasha?" she asks bluntly.  
"Kagome, I could not tell you this before. I was unaware of your feelings and I was terrified of hearing your rejection. Now, however, I can finally tell you everything. You have given me so much. Hope, friendship and understanding. You pulled me out of the darkness and back into the light. I hate it when you are not near me. For the longest time I tried to fight it, but there is no denying the truth. I love you Kagome. I love you so much that I a the one who feels addicted." He stops and looks down at the woman in his arms. She gazes straight back with happiness dancing in her sapphire orbs.  
"Are you sure you love me? I am nothing like Kikyo and I never will be." She warns. Inu-Yasha throws his head back and laughs.  
"I thank the gods for that everyday! Kagome, I love you for you, not for who you used to be." Kagome smiles.  
"Good, because what you see here is what you get. Good and bad." She teases lightly.  
"I wouldn't have it any other way." Inu-Yasha smirks and captures Kagome's lips with his own.  
  
AN: Ok ok, Inu-Yasha was very OOC. So sue me. I was about to die of boredom in Spanish class one day and decided to write this rather than pay attention. So if you want to flame me for that then go ahead, I already pleaded my case. Please leave a review! 


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